Former Senator and U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham will be providing the luncheon keynote at the Annual Spring Meeting on Friday, April 21, 2017. Currently a principal in the Washington, D.C., office of Blank Rome Government Relations LLC, Abraham served for four years as Secretary of Energy for under President George W. Bush, and six years as a U.S. Senator.

As former Secretary of Energy under President George W. Bush (2001-05) and U.S. Senator from Michigan (1995-2001), Spencer Abraham has more than 30 years of extensive government experience in matters involving energy, technology, tax policy, defense and national security, corporate governance and homeland security. Abraham is also the chairman and CEO of The Abraham Group, an international strategic consulting firm.

Abraham was appointed by President Bush as the tenth Energy Secretary in U.S. history amid a severe energy crisis that included the California blackouts, declining domestic energy supplies, and insufficient international energy trade opportunities. In response, he helped President Bush devise America's first national energy plan in over a decade and oversaw its implementation. As part of this plan, he led efforts to broaden America's international energy partnerships, working with China, Japan, Russia, the EU, countries in South America and Africa, and certain OPEC nations. Domestically, he spearheaded the DOE's high-tech efforts in the areas of hydrogen fuel cell research and the development and expansion of clean coal technology programs, and provided a strong voice for the reemergence of safe nuclear power.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary of Energy, Abraham served a U.S. Senator from Michigan for six years. In the Senate, he was a member of the Senate Commerce, Judiciary, and Budget Committees, and served as chairman of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee and the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing and Competitiveness. He was also a senior official in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Vice President.